The newest app to introduce dual camera capabilities is Snapchat. The “Dual Camera” recording functionality that the app showcased during its Partner Summit earlier this year is now available. Users can now concurrently use the front-facing and rear cameras on their phone to take photos and videos. It is now accessible on iOS for iPhone XS and subsequent devices. (According to Snap, Dual Camera won’t be accessible on Android for some time.)
When teasing the feature for the first time in April, the business stated the new video option will be a part of a collection of more sophisticated tools for producers dubbed “director mode.” Director mode, however, hasn’t yet gone live; according to Snap, it’s anticipated in the coming months. Instead, the firm decided to introduce Dual camera as a stand-alone function in the primary Snapchat camera.
The idea of simultaneously recording content with both of a device’s cameras is not new; the short successful app Frontback tried it out about 10 years ago. However, with the popularity of selfie app BeReal, the idea has gained greater traction recently. In contrast to previous apps, which were primarily concerned with selfies, Snapchat’s approach to the function is rather different.
Users who have Snapchat’s Dual Camera feature enabled can simultaneously record video with both cameras and alter the order of the two movies. A picture-in-picture style, a cutout mode, and a split-screen version are all available. The split-screen version places each camera on one side of the screen, simulating TikTok’s green screen. Snapchat’s renowned augmented reality lenses are also supported by Dual Camera mode, however at the moment the effects can only be added after the fact.
There are other businesses experimenting with dual-camera filming besides sleep. Candid Challenges, a twin camera system that Instagram is also exploring, is now a “internal prototype,” the company said last week. That functionality currently sounds more like a direct duplicate of BeReal, but it’s not hard to think that it might eventually appear in Reels as well.
